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MIGRANT CRISIS

Three missing in migrant shipwreck southeast of Italy: charity

Three people are missing and presumed drowned after a migrant boat was shipwrecked in the central Mediterranean, southeast of an Italian island, although almost 40 others on board were rescued, German aid group ResQship said on Saturday.

Italian coast guard officers and firefighter corps divers are pictured near the body of a dead migrant on February 27, 2023, after a migrant boat sank off Italy's southern Calabria region
Italian coast guard officers and firefighter corps divers are pictured near the body of a dead migrant on February 27, 2023, after a migrant boat sank off Italy's southern Calabria region. Three migrants have been reported missing after a shipwreck southeast of Italy on Friday. Photo: Alessandro SERRANO / AFP

Tunisian fishermen were first on the scene on Friday evening when ResQship’s vessel, the Nadir, arrived to help, a spokeswoman told AFP.

“When Nadir arrived, the fishermen had already taken aboard 38 people who were in the water. They told us that there are three people missing,” she said.

The incident occurred southeast of the Italian island of Lampedusa, halfway on the route from the Tunisian city of Sfax.

The charity said survivors were taken by the Italian coastguard to Lampedusa, where the reception centre has for weeks been overwhelmed by the number of arrivals.

READ ALSO: Italy declares state of emergency as migrant landings soar

More than 42,000 people have arrived on Italy’s shores since the start of 2023, almost four times the number in the same period last year, according to interior ministry figures.

Many of those attempting the crossing from north Africa to Europe to do not make it.

The reasons behind the sharp increase in the numbers of arrivals are complex and varied, but key factors include a rapidly deteriorating political and economic situation in Tunisia under President Kais Saied, and unusually mild weather conditions in the Mediterranean at the start of the year.

READ ALSO: ‘More will drown’: Italy accused of breaking international law on migrant rescues

The period of January to March 2023 was the deadliest first quarter for migrants in the central Mediterranean since 2017, the United Nations said on April 12, with 441 lives lost.

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MIGRANT CRISIS

Italy migrant shipwreck toll at 34 as more bodies found

Italy's coastguard said Friday it had found another 14 bodies after a migrant shipwreck off the southern coast earlier this week, taking the confirmed death toll to 34.

Italy migrant shipwreck toll at 34 as more bodies found

More than 60 people had been reported missing after the sailing boat sank off the coast of Calabria overnight Sunday-Monday, with 11 people rescued.

“Today 14 bodies were recovered.. a total of 34 bodies have been recovered,” the coastguard said in a statement.

It said air and sea searches continued for the missing.

The coastguard had on Thursday reported another 12 bodies had been found, including women and children.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said earlier this week that survivors had reported 66 people missing, including at least 26 children.

They had set off from Turkey and sank around 120 nautical miles off the coast of Calabria. Afghan families were among the missing, MSF said.

Ten bodies were found in a separate shipwrecked migrant boat on Monday off the Italian island of Lampedusa, according to German aid group ResQship.

Some 3,155 migrants died or disappeared in the Mediterranean last year, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

More than 1,000 have died or are missing so far this year.

The Central Mediterranean — the area between North Africa and Italy and Malta — is the deadliest known migration route in the world, accounting for 80 percent of the deaths and disappearances in the Mediterranean.

Many migrants set off by boat from Tunisia or Libya, with Italy often their first port of call.

Arrivals have dropped considerably this year, with almost 24,500 people landing in Italy so far, compared to more than 58,600 in the same period in 2023, according to the interior ministry.

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